Peru: Search for the missing

"From the Field" series

07-07-2011 Film Ref. V-F-CR-F-01071-V

It is 27 years since her husband disappeared but Adelina is still searching for him. He is one of 15,000 Peruvians reported missing, caught up in battles between the Shining Path, a Maoist guerrilla group, and the army in the 1980s and 90s. While the years pass, people's need to know the fate of their loved ones remains as strong as ever. Without the mortal remains and proof of death, families can't move on, remarry, claim inheritance or simply conduct funeral rights. There are thought to be more than 4,500 mass burial sites in Peru, but today fewer than 10% of the recovered bodies have been identified

Designed for TV broadcast, the From the Field series tells the stories of people living their lives in the shadow of war. It also shows the efforts of the Red Cross/Red Crescent to help treating the wounded, working in prisons, trucking food and water, or tracing family members lost in the chaos of conflict.